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Psyche A Williams-Forson

Headshot of Psyche Williams-Forson on yellow background

Professor and Chair, American Studies

(301) 405-6931

1328E Tawes Hall
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Education

Ph.D., American Studies, UMD, College Park
Certificate, Women's Studies, UMD, College Park
M.A., American Studies, UMD, College Park
B.A., English/African American Studies, Women’s Studies, University of Virginia

Research Expertise

African American/African Diaspora
Everyday Life
Food Studies
Gender
Material Culture
Museum Studies
Performance Studies
Race/Ethnicity

Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson is professor and chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland College Park. She is author of Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America (winner of the James Beard Media Award for Food Issues and Advocacy, 2023); co-editor of Taking Food Public: Redefining Food in a Changing World (2013); and, Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power (winner of the Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prize, American Folklore Society). She is known nationally and internationally for her work in building the scholarly subfield of Black food studies, and she has published numerous articles on topics such as Black women, food, and power; food and literature; food and sustainability; race, food, and design thinking; eating and workplace cultures; as well as the historical legacies of race and gender (mis)representation, with (and without) food. She has also been interviewed on numerous podcasts, in several news articles, and for documentaries, including Al Roker's "Family Style" (NBC Today), Netflix’s "Ugly Delicious," and The Invisible Vegan. Dr. Williams-Forson is an affiliate faculty member of the Theatre, Dance, and Performing Studies, the Departments of African American Studies, Anthropology, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity.

 

Select Publications:

Courses

  • AMST418G - Food, Trauma, Sustainability (Course awarded by the UMD Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for using design thinking methodology)
  • AMST498W – Black Class: From the Harlem Renaissance to Hip Hop
  • AMST629D Race, Class, Material Culture – Spring 2018
  • AMST628DFeminist Cultural Criticism of Diasporic Texts
  • AMST698Directed Readings – Food Studies